One of the things I enjoyed most about Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street, were her intense, vivid descriptions. I actually made my husband listen to a description of a garden because it was so incredibly rich and beautiful.
Scenery can be (and should be) more than a backdrop for the story. Think of the Radley house in To Kill a Mockingbird, or the O'Hara plantation at Tara in Gone With the Wind. These were more than simple settings, but conveyed deep feeling both to the readers and the characters who lived in and observed them.
This is one of the areas in my writing that still feels weak and under-developed to me, particularly in the story that I am currently working on. And because it is set in my hometown, I have absolutely no excuse for it to be so.
The same way that the Radley house revealed so much about the family who lived in it, my hero's home should echo some of the struggles and emotions he is having. Using the setting this way accomplishes two purposes at once--
1. It gives the reader a vivid picture of the background of the story.
2. It also emphasizes conflicts or character traits in the story and strengthens the themes it echoes.
I will post on my own progress with this on Wednesday.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment